The Beginning of the End- Madrid, Segovia, and thereabouts

And finally... the long awaited for beginning of my blog.

May 23, 2007 - Wednesday-
We finally arrived in Madrid after 24 hours of traveling. Rebecca and I boarded the plane in Vegas at 8:30 in the morning our time on the 22nd, and we stepped off the plane in Madrid at 8:30 in the morning our time on the 23rd. So in actuality, we were in Madrid late afternoon. We arrived at the Hotel Regina right in the middle of the city and honestly had no idea what to do with ourselves until dinner. I had switched roles in my life, going from the English speaker in an English speaking country not understanding those who spoke Spanish to me, to being in a Spanish speaking country with people who didn´t understand my speaking Spanish to them. I somehow went out on the street and bought a phone card using the Spanish I knew which gave me a little courage that said to me "Alright Diane you can do this." They fed us dinner at the hotel. Dinner here is very late it usually doesn´t start until about 9:00. Which actually works out really well because then afterwards you can just relax and eventually go to sleep. The Spanish always sit down to eat. You do not eat on the go. In fact, I have never seen that as an option yet here, to get your food to go. You sit to eat, and you take your time, and you enjoy each other´s company. Nothing is rushed. A good meal here takes over an hour. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day (usually around 2:00) and a lunch done right will consist of two courses and dessert and will last two hours.

May 24, 2007 -Thursday-
The next day we had a walking tour of Madrid scheduled. So we set out and as we reached the royal palace it began to pour. Everyone got out their umbrellas except for the Vegas kids. We don´t own umbrellas. We actually began reminiscing on the last times we all used umbrellas. One girl had not used hers since she was seven years old. Ah, the desert. Luckily, the Spanish were smart enough to put a roof on the royal palace (which as you know, prevents you from getting wet). There we proceeded to tour 14 of the 2800 rooms in the palace. The king and queen don´t actually live there anymore. Originally the rooms were to house all of the royal family and their servants. The detailed decorations inside the palace are incredibly detailed, especially when you stop to think that it was all done by hand. Most of the ceilings are painted with elegant pictures depicting mythology or other symbols. The impressive thing is that the artists actually painted it right on the ceiling, it wasn´t painted on a canvas which was then put on the ceiling as in some places. There are beautiful chandeliers in almost every room. These mostly came as gifts from France and Italy. We also learned a long history of kings and queens of Spain and who married who and why and when they died, etc but I won´t bore you with that even though I have the entire history perfectly memorized.

Our director was nice enough to order a bus from the palace to the Museo del Prado, which does not mean I did not get soaked to the bone from the walk from the bus to the museum. The Prado is one of the most famous art museums in Europe. It houses works by many famous finnish, Italian, and Spanish artists. Our guide focused on the Spanish artists El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. It was fascinating. It is one thing to look at a painting, but another to know the story behind the painting and where the artist was at that point in his life. For example, Goya´s paintings start out very colorful, very full of life, they say that Goya did not paint a person, he painted their soul. You then learn that Goya lost his hearing and also suffered tremendously from arthritis and slipped into a deep depression locking himself in his house for a year. During that year he used his walls as his canvas and when he finally came out and the paintings were discovered, what is painted there will make your skin crawl. The colors are dark, the eyes are empty, and the faces monstrous. It was a really eye opening thing to see.

May 25, 2007 -Friday-
On friday we went to Valle de los Caidos, or Valley of the fallen. It is incredible to be going somewhere not knowing what to expect, and therefore expecting nothing, and then what you see there makes your jaw drop. When we finally drove out of Madrid and up a mountain what we were faced [Photo]with was a cross 100m high. Almost 500ft if you can imagine that. Carved with ornate sculptures and built completely out of stone. Below the cross is a monastery built into the rock in the side of the mountain. Atop the door is a tremendous statue of the father holding a dying Jesus in his arms. We begin the tour and this is what we learn. At the end of the Spanish civil war this monument was built by prisoners of war to hold the corpses of 40,000 soldiers of the war. The dictator Franco is also buried inside the monastery as well as the leader of the Republican regime. (Correct me if you know that I´m wrong on any of that information). So in reality this monument represents something terrible and at the same time the unity of Spain now between both parties of the republic. The countryside around the monastery is beautiful too, even though it was raining again and I still refused to buy an umbrella.From the Valley of the fallen we went to El Escorial which is another monastery, grave site, and castle. I would tell you the history behind that, but again, I don´t know that you would be very interested so I will spare you. What is interesting about this place though is that the decorations of the castle itself and the living quarters of the king are all very plain. You then go down a flight of stairs and are met with gold plated and marble rooms filled with coffins that hold the bones of the royal family. These people die in style I´ll tell you what.When we got back to Madrid Rebecca and I spent the rest of the day in El Parque de Retiro. If you thought Central Park was amazing, you should go here. There are staues everywhere and everything is so green. There are fountains and gardens and walk ways and a huge pond in the center of the park with a huge monument as the background. It´s absolutely amazing. It was also very wet and muddy and I ruined my jeans, but it was worth it. Rebecca and I also started speaking to each other only in Spanish to practice and so we didn´t look as much like tourists. It worked because I got stopped by a tele newscaster and asked my opinion on the political situtation right now. I replied ¨No sé, porque you hablo un poco español. Yo soy de America.¨ He then spoke to me in English and told me to not let anyone talk to me about politics while I was here (elections were to be held the next say). I assured him I wouldn´t and we were on our way.

May 26, 2007 -Saturday-
On Staurday we went to Segovia and the weather was absolutely misera[Photo]ble. I still did not own an umbrella. (I still don´t I might add, and I´m nice and dry in Alicante). Segovia is famous for it´s aqueducts. I forget how tall they are (I forgot a lot about Segovia because I was shivering the whole time and the wind prevented me from hearing): What I do remember is that what you see to your right is not held together by cement. There is a keystone at the top of the arch that holds it all together and when you take that out, it all comes tumbling down. I also know it´s very old and they don´t actually use it anymore. We also visited the castle in Segovia. And the only thing I can remember being impressed with, besides the fact that I wished someone would light a fire in the giant fireplace) was the view. Outside the castle, you could look over the countryside and through the rain it looked like a watercolor painting, it was beautiful.The weather was a little better back in Madrid so Rebecca and I walked around to see what we could find. We found Plaza de Esaña which is home to a giant statue of Cevantes and Don Quixote, we found an Egyptian temple called Temple de Debod, we found a view of the Duchess´house, and we found lots of Spanish boys yelling ¡Guapas! and ¡Morenas! at us as we walked down the street as if we did not know our hair color.[Photo]Later we found the most amazing dessert in Spain. Bebida cocolate con churros. They do not have chocolate milk here, they do not have hot chocolate here, they have a chocolate drink. It honestly tastes like a melted hersheys bar and is just about as thick. As if this isn´t enough reason for you to go and buy the next size up in pants, they give you churros to dip in your chocolate drink. One word: Amazing.

Alright, I´ve been sitting at the computer lab at the Universidad de Alicante way too long now, so I´ll let you take all this information in and then I will write about our adventures in Alicante tomorrow, or soon thereafter.[Photo]